Before leaving office on May 29, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari is being urged by the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) to put an end to the distinction and discrimination between holders of the Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.).
They promised to close higher education institutions as a result if the president did not end the discrimination. "Nigerian polytechnic students and polytechnic graduates have been facing difficulties of dichotomy for the past years, in which the stakeholders in the polytechnic education sector have put so much pressure and resources on the Ninth National Assembly to pass the "Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degree and Higher National Diploma.
“The Ninth National Assembly has done a very good job by passing the Bill but the President’s assent to make it a law is necessary.
“The Senate arm of NAPS, through the Office of Deputy Senate President, has agreed on shutting down all polytechnics, colleges of technology and allied institutions that award HND across Nigeria if President Buhari fails to assent to HND/B.Sc. dichotomy bill in the next 14 days.â€
“For some time now, we observed that the President has been assenting to many bills, but the HND/B.Sc. the dichotomy Act has not been attended to. In line with this, if the President fails to assent to this bill within 14 working days, the polytechnic students across Nigeria will occupy the Presidential Villa in Abuja and continue to cry until he assents to the Bill.
‘’Polytechnic students and graduates are one of the major groups that supported and sustained the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last seven years and 10 months. We should not be treated like an outcast in our nation.â€